I’ve been doing a lot of one-on-one stroke correction sessions where we do underwater filming, where we get great footage of the swimmer. We then do analysis on the computer and then we jump back in the water and we go through some drills and exercises to help the swimmer improve their stroke. One of the things that’s popped up lately is some swimmers are losing the energy and momentum from their entry into the water.
Now we’ve spoken about this for sprint freestyle on a video a couple of months back but what I’m talking about here is just for general everyday stroke. So, not just for sprinting but for all types of distances and all types of freestyles. The thing that’s been popping up is some swimmers are coming in and then, when they go to enter, they drop their elbow so they’re entering with their elbows first and they push down in the water. And what it does is it makes you lose the momentum and the energy that you’ve got coming forward in your recovery. It means that you lose that part here so you don’t get that much distance per stroke and you’re not swimming as smoothly as you could be.
There are two drills which we’ve been using to fix that. The first one is fingertip drag freestyle, so we spoke about that last week. That’s a very common drill where you drag your fingertips on the surface of the water and then you enter at the front. So that’s going to help you get your elbow up so you’re not dropping it as you enter.
The second drill, which is in the Mastering Freestyle Program but it’s not often talked about and it’s not a drill that’s too common. So, it’s a drill that is working really well for fixing this up and it’s called pause and enter. What you need to do is swim normal freestyle but you pause for a split second before you enter the water. So, you come over, you go pause, enter, pause, enter, pause, enter. So you’re going to be just stopping before you enter which allows you to really feel the energy and momentum forward into your entry. And you’ll feel that you are getting more distance per stroke and you’re entering a whole lot cleaner.
That drill is in the Mastering Freestyle Program. You can see it here and that’s how to do the drill. We’ve got Sam swimming the drill there. So if you find that you are losing your momentum forward from your recovery into your hand entry, into your extension, then give those two drills a shot because they will really help you out. In our new freestyle program which we’ve got coming soon, we’ll cover a few of these drills and more to really help improve your stroke. So you’re swimming faster, you’re swimming smoother and you can enjoy your freestyle a whole lot more because your technique will improve. So that’s what’s coming in our new freestyle program. There will be more details to come soon.
Have a great week. I hope those two drills help out your freestyle and I’ll see you next week.
